MBA Programs

Tuck Considers Adding a Graduate Program in Management

Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business will explore adding a new master’s in management program aimed primarily at undergraduates earning liberal arts degrees. The earliest that the program could launch is September 2016, says Tuck Dean Paul Danos.

Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon unveiled the plan during a speech to faculty on Monday, when he laid out a number of additional initiatives that include a proposal to hold the line on tuition increases at the college, according to student newspaper The Dartmouth.

Anyone with an undergraduate degree could apply to this one-year master’s that Danos describes as a “high-level introduction to business.” For now, the school is analyzing market data, surveying students to gauge their interest in such a program, considering the value of graduates to potential employers, and determining the housing requirements for potential students, adds Danos.

Faculty at Tuck will decide whether to move forward with the master’s in management in June; on approval, a further two years will be needed to put the program together. Danos envisions it to include 100 to 120 students taught in two sections of about 60 each. Around 25 percent of them would probably come from Dartmouth and 75 percent from other institutions in the United States and abroad. International students would probably be particularly interested because many have shown a desire to earn higher degrees at younger ages, says Danos.

The curriculum, he adds, could include modules on analysis, leadership, and entrepreneurship. In addition to hiring additional professors, the school would rely on MBA faculty to teach these students with focuses on innovation and hands-on learning, says Danos. Teamwork and technology would be incorporated into assignments.

Danos downplays any concern that this master’s could cannibalize the school’s MBA by making it unnecessary for many. He says the two programs are aimed at different groups at varied stages in their lives. He believes that some master’s degree students might still go on to pursue MBA degrees later in their careers.

Tuck won’t be the first business school with a master’s in management degree: London Business School, IE Business School, and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management all have programs designed to give non-business students some business know-how. “The new normal,” Danos says, “will be graduating with a liberal arts education and some sort of business experience.”